Love...God...- Jesus
(Mark 12:30)

"God gave you emotions so you could worship him with deep feeling"
Chapter 13, pg. 101 of the Purpose Driven Life

Ask yourself: If you looked at the whole of my life, everything I think and do, what is the one thing that I am most passionate about?

Would "being a lover of God" be the first thing someone would mention about you?
Does your love stand out?
Could people tell that you are in love with God?
Do you love God with "deep feeling"?
How soon does someone find out that you are a "lover of God" by being around you?

Not the forced evangelism stuff, not the pushy religious jargon, not the suffocating moral judgment that often accompanies religious people like bad gas.

I am talking deeply sincere, tender, passionately faithful, move the heart kind of love.

God gave you emotions.
Are they working?

I am not talking weepy, gushy, over the top hyper-sappy, I've got Jesus pumps stuff. But the powerful internal wild river that when you encounter it, no matter where you are, it has the fearful and yet exciting sense that it's going to pull you under like some kind of holy undertow.

Sometimes I weep in my times with God because I long to love Him with a love that is worthy of Him. I want a desperate love.

A love life in God that is as permanent as a soul tattoo, as strong as death, as voraciously hungry as the grave and flesh searing hot as burning coals. (Song of Solomon 8:6.)

Don't just give me a calm, soft and cuddly precious moments kinda love...
I want thunder and lightning, smokey and fiery passionate love!

Jesus trumpets the call in Revelations too "Love me like you mean it, love me with fire, burn with love!" (Revelations 3:15.)

Save the tepid stuff for Hollywood chick flicks, steamy romance novels, rabid shoppers and golf enthusiasts. God wants the real thing.

The sad thing is that such people are painfully rare or pathetically weird; that the authentic lovers get sent to the background, driven out or burned at the stake.

Jesus' passion was a powerful display of love...desperate love.

I want to live a life of love that is ignited by such holy flames.